Rights & oil:
Ellner, Steve
pitted ballots against bayonets and, for the first time since the 1964 military coup, raised high the hope that a quick and Election in Venezuela peaceful transition to civilian rule is in...
...within OPEC, for intent on rule by repressive "security" apparatuses might no instance...
...As is now customary, following the mainland China: Whereas under Mao the The answer to why it took 30 years for massive precedent of Indochina and the overriding goal of the state was the cap- American recognition of one of the current one of Iran, the reams of com- ture of Taiwan and the destruction of overwhelming facts in 20th-century hismentary on the new development, both America's "China," that of the refugee tory, namely the liberation and unificaofficial and journalistic, have mostly fo- warlord, Chiang Kai-shek, under its pre- tion of mainland China from foreign occused on the frivolous aspects of the sent leadership...
...Venezuela called an footsteps...
...Moreover, key leaders such as the U.S.- such disappointment for the Perez government was the retenbased exile, Leonel Brizola, a popular one-time governor and tion by the United States of the "anti-OPEC" clause of the titular head of the powerful, re-emerging Brazilian Labor 1974 foreign commerce law which denies favorable terms of party, have pledged moderation in exchange for the inaliena- trade to OPEC members...
...foreign debt...
...THE RECENTLY elected President of Venezuela, Luis True, this month's revocation of the draconion, decade-old Herrera Campins, who takes office in early March, is Institutional Act No...
...The "South's" propoNew York Seminar on Contemporary Brazil and teaches his- sals included a moratorium on the Third World's $250 billion tory at Queens College...
...but the move backfired as the majority of OAS member na- STEVE ELLNER tions, themselves ruled by dictatorships, extended solidarity to (Steve Ellner is a member of the faculty at the Universidad the Somoza regime by condemning outside interference in de Oriente in Puerto La Cruz, Venezeula...
...has failed to strike a Venezuela for her moderation in foreign policy and for her responsive chord among OPEC member nations...
...Who knows...
...Later Perez sent a flight of Air fund financed by OPEC and the developed nations to stabilize Force planes to Costa Rica...
...ble right to reconstruct Brazilian democracy from the bottom administrations to reconsider the clause have failed to mateup...
...That task, possible only under full freedom, is the very crux Another embarrassment for Perez stemmed from his reof any transition from the rule of force to the rule of law...
...and for rashly stepping a conservative bloc led by Saudi Arabia and prodded by the into a conflict which threatened to involve the nation in a U.S...
...the Perez administration attempted to rally interna- That the United States failed to display greater enthusiasm for tional opinion against Somoza...
...froze oil prices...
...Spain...
...RALPH DELLA CAVA News and World Report...
...marks at the time of the North-South dialogue in Paris, in Should General Figueiredo choose to make himself the hos- which he threatened a drastic oil price increase should the tage of democracy's future, then November's farce will be- "South's" demands go unheeded...
...Such an unprecedented transition is never easy, as India and Greece, Portugal and Spain attest...
...Behind this Latin America between democracies and dictatorships, detactic is the regime's cunning strategy to sidestep the unpopu- flates the idea that the Third World is a cohesive bloc...
...promises on the part of several U.S...
...conservative nations like Saudi Arabia, and those like Algeria On the political front, optimists expect the President- and Libya which consistently call for annual oil price increases designate to honor the popular will by governing with Con- of over twenty percent...
...But the plan could still rebound to the people's benefit- During the election campaign...
...defense of human rights has undermined Perez's position...
...At home, Copei criticized the Perez government for oveithe following OPEC meeting in Venezuela in December 1977, committing Venezuela in Nicaragua...
...policy of outgoing President Carlos Andres Perez, a revision Nonetheless, by Figueiredo's inauguration, he will have fil- which the Carter administration is likely to view with mixed led key military commands with officers loyal to him...
...Earlier in 1978, they engineered According to Copei, the polarization between socialist and "reforms" that are designed to alter and perhaps even expand capitalist-oriented nations in Africa...
...outspoken position on human rights at the same time that the Transition from military rule will certainly depend on the nation is forced to accommodate itself to military-ruled civilian opposition as well...
...phone call to Zbigniew Brzezinski to the rationalization of agriculture and other accomplished by the Chinese Comindustrial needs of China which United goals more affective of daily life than munist movement under the leadership of States industry -starting, apparently...
...strictly of his own making, with no colminds at State may propose recognition When the shadows of the question laboration from the United States, parof Niagara Falls, the Rockies and similar have threatened to intrude into the gen- ticularly the CIA, in pressing down the phenomena which, like China, somehow eral glow of self-congratulation, the an- whole society so firmly that it was bound manage to survive whether we recognize swers have almost always been framed in to spring back up toward, if not to, them or not...
...Issues like rank corruption in high places, political amnesty for Herrera Campfns favors a more restrained, low-key foreign all and the calling of a constitutional convention will test the policy...
...immense lar ARENA or replace it with a new urban, right-centrist party dissimilarities among the underdeveloped nations obviate an of its own as well as to weaken its opposition by fragmenting appeal to all of them on the basis of common interests, as Perez its voters into feuding factions on the center-left...
...Hence, it was Mao, is almost wholly to be sought in with Coca Cola, the famed industrial now, at last, possible for the United American governmental attitudes, which leader-may now begin to supply...
...Upon the first signs of popular resistance following years in government have posed a challenge to the United the assassination of journalist-politician Pedro Joaquin States, but it was one that this country could have easily met...
...5 does not prevent him from declaring a expected to modify the Third World-oriented foreign "state of emergency" under which the soldier's word is law...
...The President Perez was far ahead of the Carter administration in Carter administration may rejoice at the prospect of Perez's his support for human rights in Nicaragua...
...terms of the evolving political nature of greater freedom...
...Perez's five Somoza...
...adventures in irredentism...
...tele- concerned with industrialization, the lance pillagers on the order of Chiang...
...has attempted to do...
...nized allies and our enemies in the Third World...
...Venezuela President's plan for the creation of a special OPEC The refusal of the United States to accede to major Third fund to bail out debt-ridden Third World countries, presented World demands for a new world economic order, or to reward at the December 1977 OPEC meeting...
...Herrera's party, the Christian Democratic Copei, sincerity of Figueiredo's repeated campaign promise to rede- maintains that it is impractical for Venezuela to uphold an mocratize Brazil...
...in order to deter the prices of certain raw materials by means of strategically attacks by Nicaraguan troops in pursuit of Sandinista guerriltimed purchases...
...the generals apt to oblige...
...He ominously told U.S...
...and in fact called on replacement by the less outspoken Luis Herrera Campins...
...Chamarro...
...Copei capitalized on the depending on the opposition's capacity to put unity above government's diplomatic failures, scorning Perez's shuttle party...
...For the moment, potentially competitive tendencies- diplomacy and flamboyant style as overplaying Venezuela's laborite, Christian democratic and socialist-have opted to act importance as a medium-size underdeveloped nation...
...but the United States to take a "more decisive stand" against such a reaction would indeed be short-sighted...
...The Perez administration, however, gress and not, like his predecessors, by canceling at will the has scored but limited successes in its foreign policy initiatives mandates and rights of critics in parliament and elsewhere...
...like the sharp division in the current two-party system sometime this year...
...Oil is an instrument of negotiation that can be used to create understanding of what the inter(Ralph Della Cava is the Director of the City University of dependence of nations really means...
...In addition, Copei has questioned the electoral victory into long-term political mobilization...
...Of several minds: Frank Getlein China, the whole China and nothing but China...
...and likened the results of his Perez initiatives discourages those who would follow in his ruthless repression to Guernica...
...Its immediate task is to translate neighbors to the south...
...But in the coming months, it is likely to turn on two powerful forces: Brazil's new Presi- RIGHTS & OIL dent and the morally victorious civilian opposition...
...It is a highly deceptive answer to the question and one which, if it is widely TRIUMPH OF COCA-COLA accepted, as seems inevitable, will serve us as badly as the related beliefs that the WHO FOUND CHINA & WHY IT TOOK SO LONG United States was "betrayed" in Indochina by the rascally Indochinese who refused to honor the "decent interval" A F•TER ONLY thirty years, the United government bothered asking the funda- concept that existed chiefly in the RepubStates has at last moved to recog- mental, obvious and probably most prof- lican campaign oratory of Henry Kisnize the government of mainland itable question, which is, How come it singer and that the Shah's troubles are China...
...19 January 1979: 7...
...The conference ended in a stalemate, but at las...
...Venezuela has occupied a middle ground between longer find a patron...
...Thus feelings...
...upon request...
...China is more sensibly cupiers and from fragmentalizing freestory, from the dramatic 2 a.m...
...One within the MDB...
...In March, General Joiio Baptista de Figueiredo, a cavalry LOWERING A THIRD-WORLD VOICE officer turned national intelligence chief, will commence a six-year term that could become the last under military rule...
...No States to recognize China, as was never attitudes probably did reflect general one in government and very few outside possible if China wanted to insist it was popular feeling, at least at one time...
...Under Perez, Venezuela has assumed the role of recently triggered military currents keen on a "return to the Third World spokesman while managing to eschew the stands barracks" could be encouraged, just as encrusted factions of the more militant members of that bloc...
...pitted ballots against bayonets and, for the first time since the 1964 military coup, raised high the hope that a quick and Election in Venezuela peaceful transition to civilian rule is in the offing...
...In an additional letdown for Perez..the military confrontation...
...But are validity of the term "Third World," a watchword under Perez...
...in favor of a new world economic order...
...rialize...
...the "North's" unilateral reduction of tariffs on Commonweal: 6 imports from underdeveloped countries, and the creation of a Nicaragua's internal affairs...
...and draws an ever sharper line between our recogemergency meeting of the Organization of American States...
...Next the lightning took 30 years...
...come freedom's prologue...
Vol. 106 • January 1979 • No. 1
